By Jo de Roo
Mid August, the Belgian championship for young horses took place outdoors in Gesves. Meanwhile, there was an indoor ‘Open Belgian Breeding championship’ on August 17, when we could enjoy the conformation class for showjumping and dressage foals, as well as a free jumping contest for two-year-old horses and those born in 2016.
At the end of this day, 11 three-year-old horses were selected to participate the following day in the Belgian championship for three-year-olds and, automatically, to contest the prestigious Medal of the King. We spoke to several winning breeders/owners, amongst them Fabienne Daigneux, Michel Rigo and Angelique De Vuyst.
Normally on Saturday the jury would select the 10 best three-year-old horses. However, this time 11 horses were selected by the jury, comprising two Frenchmen (Pierre Henriot and François Fischesser) and Belgians Herman Van den Broeck and Jacques Fraselle.
This year, it wasn’t only the number of selected horses that was different. In the final ranking of the Belgian championship for three-year-old horses a very unusual situation occurred when two champions were declared having both scored equal points. We are talking about Karla des Wagnes and Vigo de Fée de Septon Z.
Joint 3yo champions: Karla and Vigo
Karla des Wagnes is a daughter of Coeur de Cachas out of Ewenta (Argentinus). and we met her delighted breeder, Angélique de Vuyst, who is herself a professional rider. “Normally, ‘des Frimonts’ used to be our studfarm’s suffix. We are located in Sambreville and started to breed 10 years ago – two or three foals a year. We own several broodmares and try to combine them with famous stallions, such as Cornet Obolensky and Balou du Rouet. It’s nice to mention that our Balou du Rouet son, Balou des Frimonts, participated here in Gesves at the Belgian championship for five-year-old showjumpers. We take our time. It doesn’t make sense to force things. We try to do everything in a good way. We don’t want to get results too fast.”
Talking about Karla’s dam, de Vuyst said: “We bought Ewenta when she was six- or seven-years-old. She participated at several regional tournaments, at 1m20 to 1m30 level. She was then injured in such a way that she couldn’t continue her sport career, but she has a brilliant character. She was competitive and jumped carefully, with respect for the fences. Due to her injury, we decided to use her in our breeding program. This was not our aim when we bought her. Karla des Wagnes is the first descendant we have bred out of Ewenta.”
Why did you combine her with Coeur de Cachas? “We know this stallion very well. We have often seen him at showjumping tournaments and he performs very well.” From 2014 until September 2018, Coeur de Cachas jumped in partnership with Sarah Toussaint, when international showjumper Yves Vanderhasselt took over writing the sequel to this success story...To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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